1pm update

Blair pledges increase in tsunami aid

The prime minister, Tony Blair, today said Britain would greatly increase its current £50m contribution to the Indian Ocean countries devastated by the tsunami disaster.

In his first interview since returning from holiday in Egypt, Mr Blair said: "My estimate is we will need to spend, from government, several hundred million pounds, so we will more than match the generosity of the British people".

The British public has already donated £76m to the Disasters Emergency Committee alone, with millions more having been given to individual charity appeals.

Mr Blair said he wanted the government to continue that momentum and offer "action that helps people who are affected by this crisis, and in particular looks at the long-term future of these countries".

The prime minister spoke as people across Europe observed a three-minute silence at midday in honour of those killed and bereaved by the December 26 disaster. The official death toll stands at more than 150,000.

Meanwhile it emerged that Indonesia has turned down Britain's offer to send 120 Gurkhas based in nearby Brunei to help with disaster relief.

The Ministry of Defence said: "Given the number of infantry soldiers already in the region, they [the Indonesian government] felt further ground troops were not required."

Discussions were continuing on whether Indonesia would accept two British Bell helicopters from the Gurkhas' base.

Indonesia bore the brunt of the tsunami, suffering at least 94,000 deaths.

The decision to offer the troops was taken at yesterday's daily meeting of the government's south-east Asia emergency committee, which was chaired by Mr Blair for the first time.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Blair defended his decision not to cut short his Christmas holiday and return to Downing Street to oversee relief efforts. "I took the view that the important thing was to get the job done," he said.

He said he had been just as involved in dealing with the crisis as the chancellor, Gordon Brown, who yesterday unveiled a debt relief initiative for the stricken countries. "Throughout the entirety of the time, I have been intimately involved with all the decisions that have been taken, and I'm doing now pretty much what I was doing then," he said.

Mr Blair said the focus would soon have to turn to the long-term reconstruction needs of areas destroyed in the disaster. "Particularly for Sri Lanka and Indonesia - and perhaps especially for Indonesia - there are going to be long-term questions that are going to require me to work with other leaders and the UN," he said.

A British frigate, HMS Chatham, has begun reconnaissance of the south coast of Sri Lanka, providing information about the scale of the devastation.

The commanding officer, Captain Steve Chick, told the Today programme that his crew had unloaded essential medical supplies. "Since then, we've been landing people ashore and it is quite clear the scale of the destruction, displaced families and some of the other difficulties they are struggling with at the moment," he said.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary Diligence is on its way to Sri Lanka to provide further assistance, while a third naval vessel is also being prepared to join relief efforts.

Meanwhile, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, confirmed that he will attend the tsunami summit in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, tomorrow, representing the G8 nations. Mr Straw will travel on Friday to Bangkok and the Thai resort of Phuket, where many UK tourists were swept to their deaths.